Compromise Printed Exploitation a Discipline of Esthetics

622 THE SATURDAY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, JANUARY 26, 1929 even through his restless first exile, still so filled with welcome it, use it until it is threadbare, and be better ambitions. Printed Exploitation craftsmen as a result. The general reader will find When at last he was alone, and seemingly with LAYOUT IN ADVERTISING. By W. A. an interesting, intimate narrative about a fascinating out hope—very near the end of the book—she went DwiGGiNs. New York: Harper & Brothers. profession which concerns them more, perhaps, than to him, and was with him when he was murdered. 1928. $7.50. they realize. It is a good book. Mr. Dwiggins writes as well as he designs—which is high praise. To conceal her nationality, she had taken the Greek Reviewed by CHARLES H. DE^fHARD name of Timandra. By this device Mrs. Atherton keeps pace with Plutarch's statement that a mistress, INE years ago, W. A. Dwiggins shocked Timandra, was living with Alcibiades at the end the book world by declaring that all con A Discipline of Esthetics temporary books were badly made—and and buried his slain body "as decently and honorably N AN OUTLINE OF ESTHETICS. Edited with as her circumstances would admit." In the novel, proved it most conclusively by making better ones. Introductory Notes by PHILIP N. YOUTZ. New Tiy takes the limp form across her arms, lifts it His influence upon the physical characteristics of York: W. W. Norton Co. 1928. 5 vols. $5. slowly, and holds it outward and aloft. "An offer books has been profound, and in a sense, revolution Reviewed by LEWIS MUMFORD ing to the sun-god whose child he may have been." ary. Mr. Dwiggins has waged individual warfare Author of "The Golden Day" The reader puts down either story, with thoughts of against the commonplace so successfully that his posi Socrates, whom Alcibiades in his marvellous youth tion is secure among the most distinguished modern HESE volumes on esthetics were first pre both loved and rejected. The conflict in his char designers, and his ideas have been instrumental in sented in a series of lectures at the People's acter would have made a dramatic appeal, but per establishing an entirely new standard in book mak T Institute in New York. They are uneven haps Mrs. Atherton thought it out of place in a ing. in length and range and in authority of scholarship; "processional" novel. In "Layout in Advertising," Mr. Dwiggins con but by the grace of ingenious bookmaking they have As in "The Immortal Marriage" the archjeolog- siders the problem of artistic unity in the preparation been put together in volumes of uniform size and ical fidelity is more industrious than inspired. In a of all forms of printed exploitation, ranging from design. The title itself is a little pretentious, for second printing, the reiterated errors in the spelling letterheads and labels to billboards and space in peri esthetics must make considerable advances and acqui of proper names should be corrected. But the canvas odicals. He divides his argument into three general sitions before anyone shall be able to reduce it to an is large, the purpose is serious, the material is im sections comprising the tools or materials with which outline: at best, these books are sketches towards what portant. If the great masters are not at hand, Mrs. the advertising designer works, the object for which may some day be the living discipline of esthetics. Atherton's picture of Alcibiades deserves recognition. the designer is striving, and the designing process Two of the volumes, Mr. Munro's "Scientific itself. While a rudimentary knowledge of adver Method in Esthetics" and Mr. Irwin Edman's tising preparation is presupposed, the book is singu "The World, the Arts, and the Artist" are very per Compromise larly free from technical matters and the casual tinent discussions of their subjects; one of them, THE NEW TEMPLE. By JOHN BOJER. New reader will find little to interrupt his interest in this "With the Eyes of the Past," a study of English York: The Century Company. 1928. $2.50. extraordinarily clear, orderly, and competent array esthetic criticism from the seventeenth century on of sound and workable suggestions. ward by Mr. Henry Ladd, is, within its limited Reviewed by PHILLIPS D. CARLETON Of course, Mr. Dwiggins has his preferences. But frame, admirable—until the author reaches the critics R. BOJER'S fame rests securely on two he is never dogmatic. Nor does he stand in awe of of our own day. The other two books, "The Judg great novels—"The Great Hunger" and the advertising profession. In his preface he warns ment of Literature," by Mr. Henry Wells, and "The Last Viking," the first with its the reader against expecting to lift a method of pro "The Mirror of the Passing World," by Mr. M. hard-woMn philosophical conclusion, and the second cedure, ready made, out of a handbook. And Cecil Allen, though not negligible, do not seem to with its vivid narrative of men and coasts but dimly throughout the volume, genially and with a nice me to go close to the core of the esthetic problem. known before. "The Emigrants" was an interlude sense of humor, he presents his process of laying out With the exception of Mr. Edman, these writers not altogether successful; the size of the canvas printed matter, without inferring that his way is the assume an "esthetic world," a world of pictures and was too large and the list of characters too compre only way—or even the best way. sculptures and music and poetry, as a basis for their hensive. In "The New Temple" Mr. Bojer has Few readers will argue with Mr. Dwiggins's fun inquiry into how we apprehend or judge this world. returned to his earlier philosophical theme. Peer damentals of advertising design. They are basic, This is to face the problems of esthetics at their Holm in "The Great Hunger" had worked out a and exist in large part because of the author's own complex end, rather than at their beginning; and life philosophy that centered about the will to live efforts. Whatever dispute may arise will concern if there is a good deal of platitude or unilluminating that flames in every ma,n when forced to the wall. the possible sales value of a piece of advertising that comment in these books, it is partly because they In "The New Temple" his son, cut off early in artistically is a thing of beauty, as contrasted with have not participated in any fresh illuminations as to life from his parents, alienated in youth from his the brazen, bold, brutal form of attracting attention the source of this finished world. It happens that sister, works out his own conclusions. He runs and forcing one's merchandise on the attention of a my reading of this "Outline of /Esthetics" has coin through a facile communism, a religious orthodoxy, lethargic public. Yet, after all, if no difference of cided with an examination of the second volume a mysticism that breaks down before the exigencies opinion existed, even Mr. Dwiggins's excellent trea of Spengler's "Decline of the West"; and I was of human sorrow, and then finally turns parson, tise would fall short of its purpose. repeatedly struck by the fact that a single bold gen eager to serve humanity with the institutions avail (5* ^* «5* eralization by Spengler on the fundamental phases able, and proudly hopeful of being able to revitalize Seldom has the author of a technical or semi- of esthetic experience, that of the "blood" and the old and crusted formulas. technical book been so adroit in demolishing with a unformed primitive feelings as contrasted with the Lorentz's struggle lies in his inability to reconcile gesture long standing traditions; and conversely, so waking-sense of the light-world and the forms of the New with the Old—to find the connection be adept in offering new and more acceptable improve a cultured consciousness—a generalization like this, tween a narrow oriental religion and the stream of ments. While Mr. Dwiggins takes the reader unsound though it might prove in detail, gave me modern life. His triumph comes after he has felt through all the technique of advertising layout, and more to think about than any two of these books did. the necessity of affection from which he had been discusses each step from the Dwiggins point of view, (5* f5* ti?* cut off and has reestablished his relationship with his he is always stimulating new thought processes in Spengler has the great advantage of realizing that father and mother again. In his vision Christ the reader's mind. What he is establishing is a set the esthetic moment exists within a matrix of other speaks: of principles, as distinguished from a set of rules. events; and since every experience has an esthetic "Is it my fault that men so often picture me on a cross? Nowhere does he criticize an actual advertisement or aspect one of the chief tasks for the philosopher is Remember, I was a willing- guest at feasts. I danced at a label or circular. Instead he builds his own examples to analyze the progressive differentiation of this ex •wedding. There was in me something of Dionysius. I, around imaginary products and shows by variations perience into the arts, and the further elaboration too, love wine, lilies, and women. and isolation that has attended the arts themselves "But remember that I am not strength only but also of identical units why one form of design attracts, weakness.

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